closely resembling that of the _Pauperes de Lugduno_. Vide
_Burchardi chronicon._, p. 376; vide Introd., cap. 5.

[20] Vide Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7. Cf. 1 Cel., 38, and Bon., 78.

[21] 1 Cel., 36.

[22] _Storia d'Assisi_, t. i., pp. 123-129.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII

PORTIUNCULA

1211

It was doubtless toward the spring of 1211 that the Brothers quitted
Rivo-Torto. They were engaged in prayer one day, when a peasant appeared
with an ass, which he noisily drove before him into the poor shelter.

"Go in, go in!" he cried to his beast; "we shall be most comfortable
here." It appeared that he was afraid that if the Brothers remained
there much longer they would begin to think this deserted place was
their own.[1] Such rudeness was very displeasing to Francis, who
immediately arose and departed, followed by his companions.

Now that they were so numerous the Brothers could no longer continue
their wandering life in all respects as in the past; they had need of a
permanent shelter and above all of a little chapel. They addressed
themselves in vain first to the bishop and then to the canons of San
Rufino for the loan of what they needed, but were more fortunate with
the abbot of the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who ceded to them in
perpetuity the use of a chapel already very dear to their hearts, Santa
Maria degli Angeli or the Portiuncula.[2]

Francis was enchanted; he saw a mysterious harmony, ordained by God
himself, between the name of the humble sanctuary and that of his Order.
The brethren quickly built for themselves a few huts; a quickset hedge
served as enclosing wall, and thus in three or four days was organized
the first Franciscan convent.

For ten years they were satisfied with this. These ten years are the
heroic period of the Order. St. Francis, in full possession of his
ideal, will seek to inculcate it upon his disciples and will succeed
sometimes; but already the too rapid multiplication of the brotherhood
will provoke some symptoms of relaxation.

The remembrance of the beginning of this period has drawn from the lips
of Thomas of Celano a sort of canticle in honor of the monastic life. It
is the burning and untranslatable commentary of the Psalmist's cry:
"_Behold how sweet and pleasant it is to be brethren and to dwell
together._"

Their cloister was the forest which then extended on all sides of
Portiuncula, occupying a large part of